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    Not Your Daddys Dongle

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    Wibu
    This document aims to clear up common myths about dongles by providing facts about CodeMeter dongles. It discusses that CodeMeter dongles have an extremely low failure rate, do not require drivers, would require significant resources to crack due to their architecture, are no more of a nuisance for users than car keys, and cannot be easily homemade like a cheap USB flash drive due to their advanced components and firmware. It also notes that CodeMeter's wrapper is a full encryption system that is regularly updated to strengthen protection against piracy.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Not Your Daddys Dongle

    Uploaded by

    Wibu
    58 views2 pages
    This document aims to clear up common myths about dongles by providing facts about CodeMeter dongles. It discusses that CodeMeter dongles have an extremely low failure rate, do not require drivers, would require significant resources to crack due to their architecture, are no more of a nuisance for users than car keys, and cannot be easily homemade like a cheap USB flash drive due to their advanced components and firmware. It also notes that CodeMeter's wrapper is a full encryption system that is regularly updated to strengthen protection against piracy.

    Original Description:

    Learn common myths about dongles and also learn the actual facts.

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    © © All Rights Reserved

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    This document aims to clear up common myths about dongles by providing facts about CodeMeter dongles. It discusses that CodeMeter dongles have an extremely low failure rate, do not require drivers, would require significant resources to crack due to their architecture, are no more of a nuisance for users than car keys, and cannot be easily homemade like a cheap USB flash drive due to their advanced components and firmware. It also notes that CodeMeter's wrapper is a full encryption system that is regularly updated to strengthen protection against piracy.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    58 views2 pages

    Not Your Daddys Dongle

    Uploaded by

    Wibu
    This document aims to clear up common myths about dongles by providing facts about CodeMeter dongles. It discusses that CodeMeter dongles have an extremely low failure rate, do not require drivers, would require significant resources to crack due to their architecture, are no more of a nuisance for users than car keys, and cannot be easily homemade like a cheap USB flash drive due to their advanced components and firmware. It also notes that CodeMeter's wrapper is a full encryption system that is regularly updated to strengthen protection against piracy.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    CodeMeter - Not Your Daddy's Dongle

    Clearing up some common myths about dongles

    John Browne - VP Sales and Marketing


    Wibu-Systems USA

    Website: http://www.wibu.us
    Blog: http://softwarecopyprotection.blogspot.com/
    LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/wibu-systems-usa-inc.
    Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/wibu_us
    I hear a lot of confusion and mis-information out in the market about dongles these days. A lot of this
    is based on people's experiences in the 1980s with early dongles.

    Here are some common myths about dongles and the actual facts:

    1. Dongles are unreliable. Sure, the really cheap stuff might be, but CodeMeter has a failure rate
    that's so small we are happy to guarantee the dongle for life. I even drove over one in my Subaru
    and it still worked. I can't remember hearing about any that have failed in the field.

    2. Dongle drivers are problematic. Good dongles don't use drivers--CodeMeter uses Windows
    services (or Mac or Linux depending on the OS) so no drivers are installed. Basically a CmStick
    looks like a flash drive to the OS. Since Microsoft estimates that half of all Windows crashes
    historically are due to buggy device drivers (produced by 3rd party hardware vendors) this is good. I
    would avoid dongles that require custom device drivers.

    3. Dongles can be cracked. Hey, anything can be cracked, given enough time, computing power,
    and smarts. You can blow any safe with enough dynamite but is it worth it? The architecture of
    CodeMeter would require lots of dynamite--that is, significant time and energy to create a crack, and
    then it's a one-time crack only. No universal crack is possible due to the nature of the key exchange.

    4. Dongles are a nuisance for users. Not really; they're not any more trouble than the ignition key
    you have for your car. Want to use the car? Put in the ignition key and turn it. And a dongle can do
    something your car keys can't: let you run your software on multiple computers (just not necessarily
    at the same time). So if a computer fails, you could already have the software installed on a backup
    machine, just waiting for you to insert the dongle and go. That's pretty handy if you're running factory
    floor automation software, or controlling the mix at a concert.

    5. You can build your own dongle out of a cheap USB flash drive. Sure you can, but why? First
    of all, a "good" dongle isn't just a cheap USB flash drive. CodeMeter is a smart card chip, high-end
    memory controller, and a bunch of memory, all on a physical device (USB, SD, micro SD, CF, etc).
    And then there's the firmware. Unless your crypto skills can match our full-time rocket scientist
    cryptographer, don't even try. The crackers are miles ahead of you.

    6. The API beats a wrapper hands down. Ok, not technically a dongle-related myth, but part of the
    story. Wrappers (or "envelopes") enclose an executable in some sort of protection scheme that can
    be unlocked only if the dongle is present. Some wrappers are worthless, leading to their bad
    reputation. Our wrapper (AxProtector) is a full encryption system that include all the protection know-
    how we've amassed over 21 years. We update it all the time to make it stronger. Using it will
    guarantee you the strongest possible protection against piracy. I'll save a more detailed discussion
    of tools for another blog.

    Got a dongle myth you want busted? 

    Leave comments on the Not Your Daddy’s Dongle blog post.

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